COLUMNIST KEN BUCKLEY

From my seat: West Ham (a)

Yet another capital win, another three points, in the top six and safe by Christmas. So far so good!

The game started much the same as Wednesday with the Blues quick out of the blocks and on the offensive without creating anything from good approach play. Then Solano, Parker and Mullins got midfield control and but for a Ljungberg glaring miss by directing the ball into Howard's body instead of the net and Ashton lobbing wide instead of over the keeper, we may well have found ourselves two down.

The Hammers had the better of the first half ? that is until the cusp of half time. The Blues got the ball on the deck and built up an excellent passing move into their box only to see it break down. From the clearance the industrius Carsley picked up the ball and started another passage of pass and move which eventually saw Osman dispossess Pienaar, such was the desire, and he found Arteta on the left, his excellent far-post cross picked out the lurking Cahill who headed back across goal to the Yak with no defender within a yard of him (how does he do that?) and he headed over the outrushing Green's hands and into the net. Pandamodium from the Blue end, silence from the rest of the ground.

The second period again started with us on top but soon became an even contest with the Blues determined to hold what they had gained and break when they could. This almost paid off toward the 70-min mark when the Hammers centreback Collins dozed off and allowed Osman a clear run on Green but the usually cool finisher got too much height and chipped both keeper and bar.

The Hammers used all their subs but to no avail, Moysie kept his powder dry until the last knockings when the 11-goal Yak was afforded a standing ovation as he was replaced by AJ.

The Blues defending now was hoof it to relieve pressure and AJ to occupy them long enough to be ready to repel the next long ball into our box. This tactic paid dividends when Neville launched another relieving ball out of defence right onto the head of Purse who inexplicably cushioned a sideward header into the path of AJ, who ? seeing the keeper in no-man's land ? ran on and clipped the ball over him and into the net at our end which sparked wild scenes by both player and fans, so much so that it was spoiled by gestapo scrooge-like stewards and a yellow card. No-one cared... WE HAD WON.

Overall, though not at our best, when we did get the ball down and play we looked the team with the quality. Today saw Jags more at home with his role and surroundings and bodes well for his future. As a measure of how well we are doing, Arteta looked part of the team rather than our sole creative outlet of the past.

Pienaar gets better and better and his workrate is phenominal. I would love to know how much ground he covers in a game. My man of the match would be Lescott closely followed by Yobo ? those two were the rock that said to the others "we will keep em out; you go and play." The Hammers blew their bubbles... we burst them.

The players threw their shirts to a lucky few at the end. Can they give us all the ultimate Christmas present on the 23rd? We can then have a right family knees-up on Boxing day. Here's hoping. UP THE BLUES!!!

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